EXHIBITIONS

Stephen Waddell: Figures
The Monte Clark Gallery Toronto is presenting an exhibition of new work by Stephen Waddell from June 12 to July 20, 2008. Influenced by 19th century painting and the history of photography, Stephen Waddell’s pictures combine art-historical reference with the unexpected beauty of the everyday. Whether Manet, Caillebotte, Atget or August Sander, Waddell’s pictures seem to be investigating what value these earlier archetypes and tropes have for figurative art today. Looking for the unforeseen, he scours the city and its surroundings. The final outcome is often a solitary figure—sometimes with back turned or face hidden from view—unaware of the presence of the camera. Stephen Waddell lives and works in both Vancouver and Berlin. www.monteclarkgallery.com

Toni Harting: Provence People 1951-1961
A retrospective exhibition of Toni Harting’s work will be presented at the Galerie de l’Alliance française in Toronto from June 5 to July 31, 2008. The show will feature 50 of Toni Harting’s photographs of the south of France. Theses images were taken in the summers of 1951 through 1961 when Toni Harting and another Dutchman formed a duo of travelling musicians. During the years of his Provence adventures, Toni made thousands of black-and-white photographs of numerous colourful characters, observing people while they lived their life on the streets and on the beaches, in the bars, and at the bullfights and the pétanque fields. This wide-ranging collection of candid, revealing portraits also include a picture of Picasso and his family at the bullfight in Arles in September 1961. www.toniharting.com

Robert Giard: Portraits, Nudes, and Landscapes
From June 14 to August 2 2008, the Stephen Bulger Gallery’s first exhibition as representative for the Estate of Robert Giard will feature a selection of vintage prints from three genres: landscapes of the South Fork of Long Island, portraits of artists and writers, and the nude figure. Ultimately, Giard’s career, which began in 1972, made its most indelible mark in the area of portraiture. Synthesizing his life-long interest in literature and his involvement in gay issues, Giard set about documenting in straightforward, unadorned, yet sometimes witty and playful portraits, a broad representation of literary figures. His archive of portraits includes such iconic figures as Edward Albee, Allen Ginsberg, and Adrienne Rich as well as then emerging novelists such as Sapphire, David Leavitt, Shay Youngblood, and Michael Cunningham. www.bulgergallery.com

Into the Light
The ArtSpring - Island Arts Centre, in Salt Spring Island, B.C., will present an exhibition featuring the work of four Salt Spring Island photographers from June 28 until July 13, 2008 at the. The four artists have pooled their talents to create a show of their latest and best work: International award-winning photographer Steven Friedman’s expansive landscapes; Eric Onasick’s brew of graphic elements, rich textures, and intimacy; Osman Phillips’ meditative mandalas featuring close-ups of the natural world; and Gillean Proctor’s studies of still life. www.intothelight.ca

Shanghai Kaleidoscope
The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) will present the exhibition Shanghai Kaleidoscope until November 2, 2008, at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). Guest-curated by Christopher Phillips of New York’s International Center for Photography, the exhibition highlights an emerging generation of Chinese artists, architects, and fashion designers from Shanghai. Shanghai Kaleidoscope focuses on the key aspects of the city’s vibrant culture through a mix of video installations, photographic works, designer fashion apparel, runway videos, and films by Shanghai’s leading contemporary artists and designers. More information at www.rom.on.ca.

Photography on Photography
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, will host Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960, until October 19, 2008. This is the second exhibition in the Museum’s new gallery for contemporary photographs. Photography on Photography presents four decades of photographs by artists in the permanent collection who have made photography itself their subject, and who have taken aim at its claims of objectivity and its ubiquity in modern life. Featured in the exhibition are works by Vito Acconci, William Anastasi, Lutz Bacher, Liz Deschenes, Roe Ethridge, Robert Heinecken, Sherrie Levine, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Prince, Thomas Ruff, Allen Ruppersberg, Karin Sander, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Andy Warhol, as well as recently acquired photographs by Moyra Davey, Kota Ezawa, Janice Guy, Josephine Pryde, James Welling, Christopher Williams, and Mark Wyse. More information at www.metmuseum.org.

The 1930s: The Making of “The New Man”
This North American exclusive, to be presented from June 6 to September 7, 2008, at the National Gallery of Canada, brings together over 200 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and photographs that explore the seminal link between art and biology. The 1930s saw the dissemination of the contrasting concepts of the “degenerate” artist and those of “superman” or “The New Man”, which were spreading throughout Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union, as well as overseas. The 1930s: The Making of “The New Man” affords a unique opportunity to see works by eminent European artists such as Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Vassily Kandinsky, Max Ernst, and August Sander, and North American artists like Grant Wood, Jackson Pollock, Walker Evans, and Alex Colville. www.gallery.ca

Utopia/Dystopia: The Photographs of Geoffrey James
The National Gallery of Canada will be presenting a retrospective exhibition of the work of one of Canada’s most eloquent interpreters of landscape, Geoffrey James. His first photographs, images of gardens, express classical notions of beauty as they reveal the geometry and underlying structures of the formal garden. These small panoramic photographs evoke a quiet passion for the great landscape schemes and natural sanctuaries of the past. In his most recent work, James pays particular attention to the way in which nature and culture intersect. This exhibition, on display until October 19 2008, presents over 80 photographs, including all of his major series work. www.gallery.ca

Humour and The Invention of Photography
From Today Painting is Dead: Humour and the Invention of Photography is drawn entirely from the National Gallery of Canada’s collection. The exhibit is on display until July 13, 2008. The 30 images were made using a variety of nonphotographic processes that range from watercolour to woodcut and lithographic print—all from the first decades following the invention of photography in the late 1830s. They offer a comment on this upstart medium that dared to challenge the traditional art of painting. In France, the images made by satirical artists such as Félicien Rops, Théophile- Alexandre Steinlen, and Honoré Daumier addressed with great wit the pervasiveness of photography and the cumbersome nature of the photographer’s equipment. More information at www.gallery.ca.

Imaging A Shattering Earth
Presented by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography from May 2 to October 19, 2008, Imaging a Shattering Earth: Contemporary Photography and the Environmental Debate features 56 provocative testimonies by American and Canadian photographers Edward Burtynsky, John Ganis, Peter Goin, Emmet Gowin, David T. Hanson, Jonathan Long, David Maisel, David McMillan, Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, John Pfahl, and Mark Ruwedel. These concerned photographers bear witness to the profound transformation of our world. While natural calamities wreak havoc upon the environment, this exhibition and its catalogue underscore human-induced threats and damages. More information at cmcp.gallery.ca.

SPECIAL EVENTS

PDN PhotoPlus Expo 2008
Registration is now open for the PDN PhotoPlus conference and expo that will take place from October 18 to 26, 2008 in New York. Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2008, the PDN PhotoPlus event features hundreds of exhibitors of photography and imaging products and services, presenting the latest imaging products from cameras to imaging software. The event also includes over 100 seminars, special events, and workshops both for professional and amateur photographers. More information at www.photoplusexpo.com.

AWARDS & CONTESTS

World Potato Photography Contest
A world photography contest to highlight the role of the potato as a source of food, employment, and income in developing countries was launched in March by FAO and the United Nations. The contest is being held in conjunction with the UN’s International Year of the Potato (IYP) in 2008. The winning photographs will be chosen by a select panel that includes professionals working in the field of photography. Winners in the professional and amateur categories will be awarded cash prizes totalling some $11 000 as well as Nikon cameras. The deadline for entries is September 1, 2008. More information at www.potato2008.org.

PACA Honours Photographers’ Rights Pioneer
Jane Kinne, widely known as the leading advocate of photographers’ rights, has been honoured posthumously by the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA). The organization will rename its Copyright Education Program in memory of Kinne, who died on November 3, 2007. For more than 50 years, Jane Kinne was one of the leading experts in copyright issues, image-reproduction rights, and media law. She helped develop the professional standards for image use that govern the stock photo industry today. Her work has inspired and influenced numerous professional photographers and agents working in the field today. More information at www.pacaoffice.org.

INDUSTRY

Ilford’s Support of Ultra-Large Format Photography
As part of its campaign to “Defend the Darkroom”, Ilford Photo, the monochrome brand of Harman Technology Limited, has announced a special initiative in support of ultra-large format (ULF) photographers. Ilford Photo is running a two-month ULF product ordering window allowing photographers to order Ilford Photo ULF sheet film products from a select group of dealers and without the worry of meeting minimum order quantities. This window ends June 30, 2008. Ilford Photo plans to combine orders from across the US and Canada to ensure quantity requirements are met before manufacturing the required items at its production facility in Cheshire, England. Product will be shipped to arrive with dealers by approximately mid-September. Canadian dealers participating in the initiative include Big Camera Workshops and The Camera Store.

Canadian Photographers and Illustrators Oppose Pending U.S. Legislation
The Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators in Communications (CAPIC) has recently announced its opposition to the proposed United States Orphan Works legislation in a letter to members. The controversial legislation, originally proposed in 2006, is before the American Congress once again. This Bill, when passed into law, would not differentiate between the works created by an American citizen and the works created by anyone else in the world. The implication is that every work from any creator in the world would have to be registered in the USA. For a detailed analysis of the proposed legislation and the effect that it has had on US trade organizations and creators' groups, as reported by Photo District News, visit their Web site at: www.pdnonline.com.

Cross-License Agreement Between Kodak and LG
Eastman Kodak Company, a pioneer in organic light-emitting diode technology (OLED), announced an intellectual property crosslicensing agreement with LG Display Co. Ltd., of Korea, a flat-panel display industry leader. The license, which is royalty bearing to Kodak, enables LG Display to use Kodak technology, including yield-improving capabilities for Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED) modules, in a variety of small to medium-size display applications such as mobile phones, portable media players, picture frames, and small TVs. The agreement also enables LG Display to purchase Kodak’s patented OLED materials for use in manufacturing displays. The agreement with LG Display is the latest in a series of moves that Kodak has made as the company commercializes its innovative OLED technology.

Polaroid Closing Instant Film Factories
Polaroid is closing factories in Massachusetts, Mexico, and the Netherlands, and thereby cutting 450 jobs. The brand, once synonymous with instant images, will now focus on ventures such as a portable printer for images from cell phones and Polaroid-branded digital cameras, televisions, and DVD players. This year’s closures will leave Polaroid with 150 employees at its Concord headquarters and a site in the nearby Boston suburb of Waltham, down from peak global employment of nearly 21,000 in 1978. The company has stopped making instant cameras over the past two years. Polaroid instant film will be available in stores through to next year after which Fujifilm will be the only major maker of instant film. Polaroid got its start making polarized sunglasses in the 1930s, and introduced its first instant camera in 1948.

New Canadian Distributor for Harman Technology
Professional photographers, photo-educators, and photography enthusiasts in Canada will now have easier access to analogue photography and ink-jet media from Ilford Photo, Harman Photo and Kentmere. Harman Technology, long supplied its Ilford Photo brand of monochrome products, including films, papers, and chemistry, as well as its Harman Photo range of ink-jet papers to customers in Canada via Wynit, a US-based company. Harman Technology has appointed Amplis Foto Inc. to take over its Canadian distribution as of April 2008. More information at www.amplis.com.

MISCELLANEOUS

Photojourney to India and Bali
A small group of photographers accompanied by photographer and psychotherapist Lee Kraemer, will be travelling to India and Bali in March 2009. The journey includes search for tigers and to the ancient cities, fortresses, and villages of Rajasthan, geographical heart of Northern India, as well as visits to sacred sites and temples, to the Elephant festival, and to the colourful festival of Holi. The journey will continue to Bali, coinciding with Balinese New Year, when villages participate in lavish processions and ceremonies. An information meeting will be held on Sunday June 22 at 3.30 pm. For more details, and to confirm attendance at the information meeting, contact Lee Kraemer at (416) 733-8735 or lee@leekraemer.ca. To view and download the flyer, click here.

Ted Grant: The Art of Observation
The hour-long documentary The Art of Observation explores Ted Grant’s 55-year career as one of the pioneers of Canadian photo journalism. From his first Argus camera, a 21st birthday gift from his wife Irene, to his early Ottawa newspaper days, Leicas and the debut of colour in magazines like Weekend and the Star Weekly, Ted Grant takes us through more than five decades of Canadian photography, completing the picture with today’s digital era. The documentary, which premiered on TV on March 4, 2008, is also available on DVD for home video use through Asterisk Production. www.asterisk.bc.ca.